Since the advent of the Internet, networks have become an increasingly popular way by which to share knowledge and experience with like-minded people.  For Mums and parents, the ease of access to such information provided by these networks has meant online communities are rapidly playing as significant a role in their lives as offline ones are. Here Iveta Tancheva talks to The NextWomen about launching Mums Like You, the merits of using social media sites and funding a business when the banks are not yet interested.

How did you come up with the idea of your start-up?

I decided to set up Mums Like You, early 2009 when I lost my job in the City and was at home looking after my baby daughter. The idea was initially to create a networking site which enables new and first time mums to stay connected and find friends .

When I did research on what is already out there and what mums want, two things quickly became clear - that a lot of mums live away from their families and friends as a result leading them to feel quite isolated at times, and that they increasingly rely on the Internet to find the support and information they need when on maternity. In addition my research confirmed my own experience as a first-time mum – that word-of-mouth is an extremely important source of information. These findings were instrumental in extending the capabilities of Mums Like You to enable mothers to share valuable information and solve real-life problems online.

The Reviews section for example is becoming a place where mums share their opinions about  products and services and find out what other mums think before making a purchase. Another example is the Marketplace area, which enables mums to list and sell baby kit they no longer need or advertise to find childcare help.

How did you form your team?

Mums Like You is an Internet based business, and at the moment does not require a large team or infrastructure to support it. The team is small and selected on the basis of their expertise and ability to contribute to the growth of the site. For example my technical team works remotely but is available on a 24-hour basis if there is an issue to be resolved. I also work closely with mum bloggers who are enthusiastic about building Mums Like You into a thriving community for mums online. What’s very exciting is that most of the members of the team are other mums, with their busy lives trying to juggle kids and family. So we don’t work office hours but we know that if we need to get something done we’ll do it even if it means working late nights.

How did you fund it, with how much money, and what is the business model?

I funded the business with personal savings, as I couldn’t count on bank finance at this very early stage of the development. The start-up costs were about £10,000, and the time I have invested in setting up and developing the company over the past months.
The business model is based on revenues from advertisers in the parenting market. The website is becoming an attractive platform for small and medium sized businesses that want to reach our influential mum audience. We are also getting a lot of interest from companies with new products in the baby sector, which want to get feedback and reviews by the mums on the website.

Mums Like You allows business members to create and place their own banner advertisements in a similar way to Facebook and MySpace. What is more, companies do not need to have a large budget to start advertising and remain in full control of their campaigns by receiving real-time data on how their advert is performing. Few parenting websites in the UK offer an affordable and effective way to advertise for SMEs and we are proud to be one of the pioneers in this area.

What makes you different from other players within the sector such as Mumsnet?

Mums Like You offers a range of interactive tools unavailable on other sites. We believe there is enormous value in collective knowledge and experience of mums. The site therefore aims to pull together everything they want to share; making sure it is easily accessible for the benefit of all mums. Unlike other sites, we rely entirely on our members for content and the website evolves the way our members want it to. The site is simple and easy to use, and enables mums to find the information they want quickly and efficiently.  We are also presently working on a number of new tools designed to help mums during pregnancy and the first months after birth, which will be released in the coming months.

What was your biggest challenge during the development process and how can other start-ups learn from this?

The biggest challenge was spreading the word about the website and getting mums familiar with it. Marketing was, and continues to be, one of the most important and challenging aspects of the business. The good news is that with the advent of Twitter and other social media sites, it is now far easier to connect to our relevant audience. The downside, however, is that it’s very time consuming and takes a lot from the resources of a start-up business. I guess the key lesson for me was that I had to try out a few different advertising and PR activities before focusing on the ones that worked best for my company.

Are you profitable?

Yes the site recently turned profitable on an operating level.

Where will the company in 1 year?

I would like Mums Like You to become a favourite online destination for first time and new mums in the UK. In the next year we are looking to expand the member base through a series of online marketing and PR campaigns. We will also work closely with our business members and advertisers to continue to offer innovative ways to engage with our mum community.